The government is determined to
complete the Messina Bridge linking Sicily to the Italian
mainland, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini
told his EU counterparts in Brussels on Monday.
The bridge was long a pet project of ex-premier Silvio
Berlusconi but never really got off the ground amid earthquake
and environmental warnings and in on-and-off developments,
although a now-defunct strait bridge company was set up which
Salvini has moved to reactivate.
Salvini said: "I stress to my colleagues that the current
government after 54 years of failed efforts has every intention
of having a stable connection between Sicily and Calabria,
between Italy and Europe, for the completion of that
Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor that" with "the Bridge
connecting Messina and Reggio, Sicily and Calabria, would have
the missing link of which (Transport) Commissioner Adina-Ioana
Valean spoke".
The Messina bridge project is named after the narrow
strait between Sicily and the peninsula.
The planned and initially costed 8.5-billion-euro suspension
bridge - the world's longest - was the brainchild and long a
hobby horse of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The project has been opposed by environmentalists and
dogged by concerns over its safety and fears of potential
Mafia involvement.
When and if completed, the bridge would replace slow
ferry services between Sicily and the mainland.
The 3,690-metre-long bridge has been designed to handle
4,500 cars an hour and 200 trains a day.
Work on the 6.5-billion-euro structure was originally
scheduled to start in late 2006 and end in 2012.
Current estimates are for getting construction started
in mid-2025 and completing the bridge in 2030, according to what
Salvini has said after reviving the Società Stretto di Messina.
Salvini has stressed that Commissioner Valean has "opened up"
to the possibility of EU funds being used to finance muc of the
project.
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